Packaging device

ABSTRACT

An array of bottles are held tightly on a support plate by a shrinkable plastic film enrobing the pack, the support plate having an array of retaining portions to position the bottles in tight contact with each other.

United States Patent De Cazenove [151 3,650,394 [451 Mar. 21, 1972 PACKAGING DEVICE De Cazenove, 28 rue cle IOrangerie, 78 Versailles, France Filed: Dec. 19, I969 Appl. No.: 886,482

Inventor:

Foreign Application Priority Data Dec. 20, 1968 France 1 79425 US. Cl. ..206/65 S, 206/45, 206/33,

Int. Cl. ..B65d 71/00, B65d 85/62 Field of Search ..206/65 E, 65 R, 65 S, 65 B,

Primary Examiner-William T. Dixson, Jr

- Attorneyl(urt Kelman 57 ABSTRACT An array of bottles are held tightly on a support plate by a shrinkable plastic film enrobing the pack, the support plate having'an array of retaining portions to position the bottles in tight contact with each other.

8 Claims, 7 Drawing Figures Patented March 21, 1972 v 3,656,394-

I INVENTOR.

ARNAUD DE CAZENOVE PACKAGING DEVICE The present invention relates to improvements in packs of bottles or like articles held on a support plate without play between them and without the use of separators.

Packs of this general type and held together by a shrinkable plastic film are known.

It is the primary object of this invention to provide such packs at a reduced cost, with the bottles more securely held in position, and with the packs more readily handled and more easily stacked.

According to the invention, the support plate is molded of a somewhat yielding sheet material, such as a fiberboard or the like, with an array of article retaining portions being molded on the plate to position the articles in tight contact with each other onthe plate.

The articles may be upright bottles, in which case the retaining portions may project convexly into the interior of the device while providing a concavity exteriorly of the device. The bottles are arranged in quincuncial array, and the resultant packs may be readily stacked, with the tops of the bottles in a lower pack projecting into the concavities in the support plate of the superposed pack.

The articles may also be horizontally positioned bottles, in which case the retaining portions may be adjacent longitudinally extending grooves receiving the bottles of the lower most layer and additional layers of bottles being superposed, if desired.

The sheet material of the support plate may be a suitable composition board of cellulosic or other organic fibers bonded and molded under heat and pressure.

The above and other objects, advantages and features of the present invention will become more apparent in the following detailed description of certain now preferred embodiments thereof, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing wherein FIG. 1 is a plan view, half in horizontal section, of one em bodiment of the packaging device ofthis invention;

FIG. 2 is a partial view in side elevation, partially in vertical section, of the embodiment of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a schematic plan view of an arrangement of a series of identical packaging devices of the type shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, on a plate which may be manually carried;

FIG. 4 shows an arrangement similar to that of FIG. 3 of identical packaging devices of larger size;

FIG. 5 is an end elevational view, partly in vertical section, of another embodiment of the packaging device of the invenuon;

FIG. 6 is a front view, partly in vertical section, of the embodiment of FIG. 6; and

FIG. 7 is a partial end elevational view of the same embodiment, provided with a removable cover.

Referring now to the drawing and first to FIGS. 1 and 2, the packaging device is shown to include a generally hexagonal support plate 1. The support plate has an array of retaining portions 2 which project convexly into the interior of the device while providing a concavity exteriorly of the device, as best seen in FIG. 2. Each plate portion 2 is substantially cylindrical. In the illustrated embodiment, the plate also has an array of holes 3 between the portions 2.

The support plate 1 has an upwardly extending circumferential rim defining with the plate the interior bottom of the packaging device, the rim comprising two like parallel rim portions 4, 5 and two like rim portions 6, 7 interconnecting the rim portions 4, 5 and being symmetrical in respect of a median vertical plane I extending perpendicularly to the parallel rim portions 4, 5. The rim portions 6, 7 are arcuately shaped so that they may conform to the cylindrical shape of the bottles 9 being held in the packaging device, these rim portions encircling a part of the circumference of the bottles adjacent thereto. Each of the rim portions 6, 7 has an inwardly projecting flap 8 to facilitate the handling of the support plate. The holes 3 in the plate and, if desired, holes in the plate rim facilitate the unloading of the plate, i.e., the removal of the bottles 9 from the plate by inserting fingers into the hole to push the bottles upwardly or laterally.

The bottles 9 are placed vertically on the support plate I in quincuncial array and tightly packed to be -in contact with each other and, as far as the circumferentially placed bottles are concerned, with the rim whose weight extends below the shoulders of the bottles. The'support plate dimensions are carefully and precisely determined as a function of the diameters of the bottles 9 so that there is no play between the bottles, the quincuncial array increasing the contact areas between the packed bottles. The concave bottoms of the bottles are placed over the convex plate portions 2 so as to center each bottle properly in the array. Since the support plate is made of a somewhat elastic or resilientsheet material, any minor dimensional differences are readily absorbed or accommodated as the bottles are placed on the plate.

After the bottles 9 have thus been arranged on support plate 1, the entire assembly is enrobed in a synthetic resin film 10 which passes around the tops of thebottles and exteriorly of the rim and plate. The film is made of a shrinkable plastic, such as a heat shrinkable thermoplastic material like polyethylene, irradiated polyethylene, or polyvinyl chloride. Upon being shrunk, the film l0 fits snugly about the support plate and bottles to hold the same tightly on the plate in their quincuncial array. i

As indicated in FIG. 2, the resultant packs may be readily stacked by placing the projecting bottle tops of a lower pack into the concavities of the plate portions 2 of the superposed pack. v

FIG. 3 shows the arrangement of 14 packs 11 on a standard plate. Each pack 11 contains 10 bottles of the usual diameter, i.e., less than 9 cm., making each pack lighter than the coriventional l2-pack and thus easier to handle, particularly for women. In the illustrated arrangement, 14 such packs are placed on a standard plate, i.e., 140 bottles, instead of the i0 packs of 12 bottles each found in conventional arrangement. Thus 16.6 percent more bottles are held in a smaller space. Furthermore, the packs are considerably lighter than the usual wood or plastic boxes, and are also much cheaper, particularly when the support plate I is molded of a cellulosic fiber or wood chips board.

FIG. 4 shows an arrangement of l 1 packs II on a standard plate, the packs being of larger dimension than packs 11 to contain bottles of larger dimensions.

Obviously, a great variety of bottle arrays in each pack and pack arrangement on standard plates are possible.

The packaging device of the present invention may be used in conjunction with reusable support plates and deposit bottles as well as disposable support plates and nondeposit bottles. In the former case, the rim of the support plate should extend higher up to the shoulders of the bottles to provide effective protection for the empty bottles when they are returned and it is usually not possible or convenient to provide a shrinkable film over the bottles.

FIGS. 5 and 6 show another embodiment of the packaging device wherein the molded support plate 12 has a generally parallelipedic rectangular circumference. The support plate has a plurality of retaining grooves 13 which extend parallel to each other to receive bottles 18 fitted into the grooves in a horizontal position. A rim 12 extends upwardly about the plate and has a downwardly extending skirt 15 to define a false bottom into which the exteriorly convex grooves 13 project, the grooves being concave in the interior of the device to accommodate the horizontally positioned bottles 18. Two opposed rim portions of the device are molded with handle portions 16 and corresponding cutouts 17 in the skirts 15 of these portions are provided to receive the handle portions of a lower pack when a number of packs are stacked.

As will be clear from the drawing, the identical bottles 18 are horizontally arranged in the support plate 12 in quincuncial array, with the lower layer of bottles being received in the grooves 13 which extend only far enough to receive the large diameter portion of the bottles, and the upper layer of the bottles being reversed in relation to the lower layer so that the large diameter portion of the bottles of one layer is aligned with the small diameter neck portion of the bottles in the other other and with the rim of the support plate, without any play between them. This embodiment of the packaging device will be particularly useful for packing wine or champagne bottles.

If the packs are subject to particularly rough handling, it i may be useful to place a removable cover 20, for instance of cardboard, over the protecting film 19, as shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, thus protecting the bottles against shock. The cover has two longitudinally extending skirts 22 covering the projecting parts of the bottles 18 of the upper layer and mating with the adjacent parts of the rim 12 of the support plate. It also has flexible lugs 22 for engagement with horizontal grooves 23 in handles 16. Suitable bands or tapes 24 may be tightened about the pack to keep the cover in place.

After the bottles have been removed therefrom, the support plates 12 may serve as fruit boxes and the like.

What is claimed is: l. A packaging device for a plurality of like upright bottles or the like having a bottom and a neck, comprising 1. a support plate of somewhat yielding sheet material, the support plate having an array of retaining portions for the bottoms of the bottles, said portionsprojecting convexly into the interior of the device and arranged on the plate to position the bottles on the plate in quincuncial array in tight contact with each other while providing concavities exteriorly of the device for receiving the necks of like bottles therebelow, and 2. a shrinkable synthetic resin film tightly enrobing the support plate and the bottles so as to hold the bottles on the plate in said array. 2. The packaging device of claim 1, wherein the support plate and its retaining portions are of a molded sheet material.

3. The packaging device of claim 1, wherein the support plate is hexagonal.

4. A packaging device for a plurality of horizontally positioned bottles having a large diameter portion and a small diameter neck portion, comprising 1. a rectangular support plate of a somewhat yielding molded sheet material, the support plate having an array of retaining portions constituted by longitudinally extending grooves arranged on the plate to receive and position respective ones of a first layer of said bottles in tight contact with each other on the plate, the bottles being so arranged that the large diameter portion of one bottle is in contact with the small diameter neck portion of an adjacent bottle, and like layers of said bottles being superimposed on the first layer in quincuncial array, with the large diameter portions of the bottles inadjacent layers being in tight contact with the small diameter neck portions of adjacent bottles, and the support plate also having an upwardly extending circumferential rim in tight contact with adjacent ones of the bottles, two like opposing rim portions extending above the bottles of all layers and the two other like opposing rim portions extending below the bottles of the uppermost layer, and

2. a shrinkable synthetic resin film tightly enrobing the support plate and the bottles so as to hold the bottles on the plate without play therebetween.

5. The packaging device of claim 4, wherein the support plate has an upwardly extending circumferential rim in tight contact with adjacent ones of the bottles.

6. The packaging device of claim 5, wherein the rim has portions arcuately shaped to conform to the shape of the bottles adjacent thereto.

7. The packaging device of claim 4, further comprising a removable cover, the cover having lugs received in grooves in the hi her ones of the opposing rim portions.

8. he packaging device 0 claim 4, further comprising a skirt extending downwardly from the support plate. 

1. A packaging device for a plurality of like upright bottles or the like having a bottom and a neck, comprising
 1. a support plate of somewhat yielding sheet material, the support plate having an array of retaining portions for the bottoms of the bottles, said portions projecting convexly into the interior of the device and arranged on the plate to position the bottles on the plate in quincuncial array in tight contact with each other while providing concavities exteriorly of the device for receiving the necks of like bottles therebelow, and
 2. a shrinkable synthetic resin film tightly enrobing the support plate and the bottles so as to hold the bottles on the plate in said array.
 2. a shrinkable synthetic resin film tightly enrobing the support plate and the bottles so as to hold the bottles on the plate in said array.
 2. The packaging device of claim 1, wherein the support plate and its retaining portions are of a molded sheet material.
 2. a shrinkable synthetic resin film tightly enrobing the support plate and the bottles so as to hold the bottles on the plate without play therebetween.
 3. The packaging device of claim 1, wherein the support plate is hexagonal.
 4. A packaging device for a plurality of horizontally positioned bottles having a large diameter portion and a small diameter neck portion, comprising
 5. The packaging device of claim 4, wherein the support plate has an upwardly extending circumferential rim in tight contact with adjacent ones of the bottles.
 6. The packaging device of claim 5, wherein the rim has portions arcuately shaped to conform to the shape of the bottles adjacent thereto.
 7. The packaging device of claim 4, further comprising a removable cover, the cover having lugs received in grooves in the higher ones of the opposing rim portions.
 8. The packaging device of claim 4, further comprising a skirt extending downwardly from the support plate. 